Diamond XtremeTV PVR-550RC: Not Quite Ready for Prime Time

Performance

We tested both tuner performance and video input capture quality. Tuner strength testing compares the PVR-550 tuner to a Sharp VC-H810 VCR tuner, representing "typical" reception for standalone TV’s. Capture Quality compares an original DVD image to those received by the PVR-550 S-Video and Composite Video inputs, using a Panasonic DVD-RV31 as the source.

To enable simultaneous capture, VCR tuner video was input through the test system’s All-In-Wonder composite connection. This is the only place where additional input hardware was used.

While all images are shown at full resolution and cropped, the DVD captures are clickable to reveal their pre-cropped form.